


using people as ladder rungs and sweeping eggshells under the bed

by mama murderbear (Genderfluid_Chara)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kinda, Mastermind Ouma Kokichi, Minor Character Death, Protect these children, a mastermind getting a kinda? happy ending?? cryptid, i was thinking i might edit this after watching ch6 but nah, im not sure what else to tag this as so i'll leave it like this~, its fine as is, lack of capitalization is intentional, oh yeah i wrote most of this before ch5 so keep that in mind too, ouma-centric, uhhhhh spoilers for the whole game but its canon divergent too so?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-05 05:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12788346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genderfluid_Chara/pseuds/mama%20murderbear
Summary: hurt by the flames that grow higher and higher,clutching a broken crown of fire,all alone in the final scene,the one and only: candle queen(title and description from GHOST and SilverChordMusic’s “Candle Queen”)





	using people as ladder rungs and sweeping eggshells under the bed

 

you want power.

no.

you want  _ control. _

when you run away from home, you don't realize this. it's not until a few years later, when the family you have built for yourself begins to look to you as a leader, that you understand.

when you see a commercial by a group called “team danganronpa”, you know you've discovered your calling. you audition, easily winning the role of mastermind with your manipulations.

you set up killing game after killing game during your middle school years, not once participating.

it's not enough.

when you reach high school, you request to be placed in a killing game. the higher-ups allow it; after all, the original widespread killing game had the mastermind as a participant. it's time to go back to the roots of the organization.

(it had been easy to pretend that you didn't care about how impersonal the games prior to this one were. you had set them up with direction from the supervisor, but with you not being there yourself, the games all seemed to be missing a core element. you don't even know what “danganronpa” is, or why so many people want to be a part of these killing games. you don't really care, either. they all try to get out just the same.)

you plan out detailed executions for every possible murderer.

then you plan the first two motives, detaching yourself from them just like the previous games.

the first one won't affect you, and your video for the second motive is blank. after all, putting a target on DICE’s back is a huge no-no. you will plan the other motives based on the other students, you decide.

(your employers erase the memories of danganronpa and auditioning and killing games from your soon-to-be classmates, and the anticipation is so thick you can feel yourself choking on it. you wonder what these people will be like.)

 

there's a glitch at first, but the monokumars handle it excellently, and the reintroductions go without a hitch.

but you search for a way to get rid of that pesky amami rantarou. the extent of his knowledge could be disastrous, should he decide to share with the rest of the class.

so you set up a bonus motive.

as planned, he dies.

not as planned, you appear to have gotten attached to akamatsu kaede, the one who is responsible for amami’s death. you also have developed a crush on one saihara shuichi, which really throws a wrench in everything. seeing him crying at the pianist's execution, instead of bringing you the satisfaction that  _ you  _ caused this, sends your heart plummeting into your stomach.

 

you taunt and mock the others, hoping that one of them will snap and use you as the next victim.

you overhear hoshi ryoma say that you almost sound like you don't want to survive, once. you pretend you didn't hear, pretend you haven't seriously considered something more direct. after all, a killing game needs a mastermind to proceed.

plus, your secret organization (your  _ family _ ) is watching. you won’t do that to them.

 

the armor of lies you have built around yourself begins to crack for the first time since you ran away from home.

_ you can't trust a word that comes out of that gremlin’s filthy mouth, _ iruma says.  _ he lies easier than he breathes. _ you don't deny it, you can't. because sometimes, lying is the only way to make your forced life a little less horrible.

you lie and you lie and you lie, and you sometimes tell the truth, but nobody can tell what is truth and what is not.

sometimes, you wonder if even you know, anymore.

saihara can see through your lies more often than anyone else you have ever met, however, and you wonder why he even bothers.

you're just a liar, after all.

(it's a lie, you remind them. only lies.)

 

tojō is executed for hoshi’s murder, though not without an admirable attempt to escape. you wince as she dies from her impact with the ground.

you submit the other motives with regret, using the data you've collected from the others.

you're just as surprised as the others when they're announced, though. perhaps even more so.

these are not the motives you planned.

 

(resurrection? it's impossible, and exactly the kind of spiritualist bullshit you wanted to avoid. oh well, you suppose--maybe it will be interesting.)

a murder happens before the necronomicon can be used. and then another.

shirogane, and then chabashira, who volunteered to be a medium for her spirit.

you pretend you don't feel a vindictive sort of pleasure when shinguuji is executed.

(you go back to your room and pretend you don't feel sick for feeling that way.)

 

you run to the toilet after seeing yumeno’s corpse. you hope saihara doesn't notice you wiping your mouth as you return to the shsl magician’s research lab.

there have been brutal deaths in previous killing games, and the executions from this game run through your head when you try to sleep, but this one is horrifying in a way the others are not, to you. all the magic in the world couldn't have allowed her to survive this.

for there she lays on the trick table, torn in half by the large buzzsaw hanging above her.

there's a sort of poetic justice in iruma getting ripped apart by her favorite shop tools, but you can't bring yourself to look her in the eyes.

 

monokuma doesn't have the chance to announce the next motive before another person dies.

(you don't know what you were expecting, but it really, really wasn't for harukawa to kill herself, hanging by her neck in a way that was eerily familiar.)

 

you get a call on your walkie-talkie from the “second-in-command” of DICE. he tells you that a gang swept through in the night, that you and he are the only ones left. they claimed that they were taking their revenge for how you had acted in the class trials, he tells you. your breath hitches as you wonder how they figured out that DICE was the secret “evil” organization you constantly referred to, and as he goes to reassure you, you hear a sickening squelch. you can’t hear his breathing anymore.

you don’t sleep at all that night. how could you possibly, when it’s your fault that your friends--no, your family is dead? instead, you spend the hours planning out justice for whoever killed these  _ children  _ who had never seriously hurt _ anyone _ , just because they didn’t like you.

(when you discover that the world is “destroyed”, you feel that it’s painfully accurate. the only people in this world who ever treated you kindly are either trapped in this stupid killing game, or dead. for a full hour, you very seriously consider following harukawa’s footsteps. knowing that the “truth of the outside world” is actually a lie doesn’t stop you from having a panic attack over it.)

 

as with the original killing game(s), the “mastermind” must be revealed in the sixth trial. monokuma gives everyone three days to gather as much intel as they want to try and figure out who planned this whole thing.

you and gonta both stay in your labs until the time limit is up. saihara comes by every day to give you updates on the investigation, which you tune out, and to leave plates of food by your door, which you barely touch.

(you don't know about gonta, but you even sleep in your lab. you want to postpone seeing the looks on everyone's faces for as long as possible.)

 

(you are excited again, for the first time since the killing game officially began.)

and when you admit it, this time truly revealing yourself without trying to mislead them, when you step forward, you savor the betrayal and sadness and horror written in the others’ eyes.

it's so despairing, being hated like this. it's so despairing that all you can do is laugh until you cry, cry, cry genuine tears for the first time since you were small.

(the first tears that you know for  _ certain _ that you aren't faking in almost a decade. it's almost funny, how much this group of students has made you  _ feel. _ the tears start, and they don’t stop, and what started as tears of laughter turn to a release of all the emotions you never let yourself act upon.)

 

it’s a surprise.

the killing game doesn't end with any more deaths.

it ends with the others offering redemption, a chance to be better that you don't deserve.

(and you  _ don't  _ deserve it. you all know it, except maybe gonta--bless his oversized heart--and kiibo even tells you so.)

but just because you aren't worthy of it doesn't mean they can't extend the choice to you. and they do.

(you take comfort in the fact that the crowd must be  _ furious _ .)

you take saihara’s hand, and he places something on your head. you reach up to find the hat he hasn't worn since before the first execution.

he gives you a watery smile as you're sent into another wave of tears.

(as soon as you leave, you manage to dismantle team danganronpa. nobody else will have to go through a killing game for as long as you live, you swear. if angie’s “atua” and heaven do exist, you hope the rest of DICE is watching over you, proud of how you’ve grown.)

and the six of you look forward to the future.

**Author's Note:**

> listen i like exploring the ideas of other masterminds on their own but  
> consider: a mastermind who, while aware of their status of mastermind, is still sort of a victim
> 
> buttercup_ghost and i had the theory (mostly buttercup_ghost, though) about team danganronpa when they were still on chapter 1 and i think i had just finished chapter 2? its wild how much of it was accurate. so i took that and ran with the idea that what if the mastermind wasnt the t r u e mastermind, because of tdr
> 
> (im going to write a mastermind saihara ficlet later on a similar but different premise)
> 
> also a semi-happy ending for the mastermind bc theres enough mastermind-centered angst already
> 
> and also their personalities werent messed with in this one, partially because i only started writing this after chapter 3, and also because heck you thats why (jkjk i do have a reason but im not sharing with everyone and their mother here)  
> (dont mention that kiibos still alive in this im in denial that that ever happens in canon plus this is canon divergent so shhhhh)
> 
> ....anyway ive rambled enough.
> 
> thanks for reading.


End file.
